Motivation is a hormonal mechanism that occurs in the brain. Dopamine is a particularly “hormone of pleasure and motivation” that our bodies are capable of producing.
People are motivated to meet their own wants, needs, and objectives when
they are stimulated by some form of reward. These types of rewards can be
physical or symbolic. The reward mechanism has its roots in evolutionary
science, specifically Darwinian theory. That means it evolved from social
behaviours. When we need something,
we don’t just ask for it. We have to work to get what we want. So, people will
do anything for a reward. It also has an example of a dog who was rewarded with
food after accomplishing certain tasks. Dogs were very good at fetching because
even though they couldn’t really see they could hear the sound of water running
out the window and catch any small fish in the stream. In order to achieve the
coveted reward dogs would then do whatever they could such as jumping or
chasing it and catching the fish. People are likewise motivated through
different forms of reward, sometimes it is physical and other times are
psychological.
Motivation may occur at different levels of the human brain. There are
three important parts: prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and medial
prefrontal cortex, each part has different sections. Each section contributes
to our thinking abilities, like judgment and memory. According to David Brooks
(2009) “Motivation is the result of a series of steps, which starts with
interest, develops into desire, follows by action, and has a payoff in that we
ultimately satisfy our desires”(Brooks 2009). He goes on and quotes Freud to
support his points:
“Motivation is basically primitive and unconscious, that is why it can’t
be taught, it requires experience. But to teach you how to think, you have to
go out. It must be innate in you because if you’d been a slave of your time and
your environment you would never be much better off than now, but right there
and now. You are not born great. You are born great. And if I have no talent,
if all my strengths are destroyed by some negative circumstance, then I have
nothing to use.”
Many authors like Richard E. Nisbett, Gary Soto, Charles Scharf and many
others have written articles about these five things. We’ll look at them
one-by-one below.
1. Motivation is hardwired into us.
Psychology professor James Keltner told me in an interview that he
always thought humans aren’t motivated. It is so easy to say motivation is
stored in the amygdala, but it never occurs in nature. Instead, he believes the
two main areas of evolution to motivate behavior are our brains, and our
emotional responses. From this interview, he shows us something interesting:
“Our basic survival strategy is to avoid pain. At the most basic level,
we fight the dangers we’re exposed to. The response is to try to avoid the
painful consequences of doing harm to ourselves or others. If the problem
persists, our evolutionary instinct is to keep trying to solve it. This is
essentially the basis of self-preservation but only because it’s not working
well. Our survival strategy works best because we never have to face those
threats and consequences. But it doesn’t work very well because we are
constantly dealing with unpleasant situations.”
According to him, people are motivated to act and behave as the
situation demands. Without motivation people wouldn’t go far toward the goals
they set out. They would get frustrated very easily but they wouldn’t be able
to accomplish anything.
2. Motivation is a neural process.
Motivation is a complex phenomenon that includes a wide variety of
biological mechanisms at the physiological and cellular levels. A number of
researchers have proposed that the brain contains information storage,
processing, and organization. Dr. Michael Foxy and his colleague Daniel
Kahneman wrote an article about the importance of the frontal lobes within the
prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the brain. Dr. Foxy and Kahneman (2011) stated that
the PFC acts like a computer to store memories in the mind. Basically, the
frontal lobe stores information in terms of numbers and language patterns. For
instance, every time we watch a movie we remember a specific character that we
saw in the movie. That is called encoding. Similarly, Dr. Foxy and Kahneman
(2011) said that the prefrontal cortex of humans consists of a network called
the prefrontal cortex formation (PBF). Their findings revealed that the
prefrontal cortex development is actually connected to the limbic system, which
plays a significant role in the neurodevelopmental regulation. This suggests
that the prefrontal cortex is actually like building blocks for other systems
in our nervous systems.
3. Some theories of motivation are wrong.
Some researchers suggested previously that we are motivated by
incentives. In fact, the study done by psychologist John Atkinson and social
scientist Herbert Alder found that incentives may serve as “motivators to take
actions which bring expected goals or outcomes”(Atkinson &Alder 2005).
Another research by psychologists Philip Johnson and Peter Fodor discovered
that people tend to act according to internal expectations. People believe in
themselves and only act on what they desire for. Furthermore, people think they
act according to the rules of a game where they are competing with various
other individuals. This is known as the pursuit seeking model. However, this
isn’t actually true. As explained by Dr. Paul Ressler, author and researcher at
Harvard, we are motivated by several factors (Ressler 2011). One of them is our
current situation in life. We have the ability of decision making. This helps
shape our behavior and actions. Second factor is the goal which is the end-goal
which we want to achieve.
The third factor is the outcome which is all the benefits or positive
outcomes are related to having accomplished the desired goal. Lastly, we want
to receive what we want because it leads to satisfaction which is related to
the outcome, and the ultimate goal of happiness. Thus, he concluded that the
incentive model isn’t completely correct.
4. Motivation is a concept by itself.
It is difficult to define because they differ among different people.
Nonetheless, it has common characteristics. Motivation is the subjective
feeling one feels about the situation. Most importantly, it exists in both the
external world and inside oneself. Both people and animals feel it. Human
beings think they are happy. Even under threat, they feel happy because they
are able to defend themselves. Research has shown that being moved to another
position results into higher job satisfaction, as well as more opportunities
which will improve our quality of life.
5. Motivation is a cognitive process.
Motivation is made up of several different components. First, it is the
intrinsic value, which refers to the beliefs about a person and things in the
future. Second, extrinsic value, which comes from the situation in the present
time. Third, effort, which is the willingness and ability to put resources into
achieving your goal. Then, reward, which is the physical or psychological
feedback. All in all, one thing is clear, our minds are in charge of the way we
think and behave. We have the power to think and decide without relying on
outside sources. We just make decisions and follow those thoughts to get the
result we expect.
References:
1. Brooks D.E., 2010. The Biology of Behavior.
2. Atkinson and Alder H., 2005. Intrinsic Reward Processing Makes Better
Decisions.
3. Foxy M.J.K.T., & Kahneman L.D., 2011. The Pursuit Seeking Model
in Human Decision Making.
4. Johnson, P.F.O., & Fodor B.E., 2009. Encoding and retrieving
semantic representations: Evidence from MRI scans.
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